The laying of a board road has for at least the past 40 years been a manual task as has been the taking up thereof. The road is laid by placing a first layer of boards with their major axis along the line of travel of the road in adjacent staggered abutting longitudinal relationship. A second layer of boards are laid on the first layer with their major axes at right angles to the first layer. A third layer of boards are laid over the second layer with their axes at a right angle to the second layer and two spaced apart groups of 5 or 6 boards spaced about 30 inches apart define the wheel travel surface for vehicles using the board road. The boards of this third or top layer are staggered in abutting longitudinal relationship transversely and are nailed to the second layer about 5 nails per 16 ft. board to stabilize the travel surface. This board road may be 50 ft. to 5 miles in length.
The road described above is a 3 ply road; however, depending upon the compaction of the ground over which it is layed and the gross weight of the vehicles traveling thereover the road may be six or nine ply which would only require adding additional layers as described above.
When it is time to take up the board road such by way of example when the drill site at the end of the road resulted in a dry hole it has been customary to employ a crew of from 8 to 15 men, a truck with an A frame and cable winch and a swamper who puts the cable around a stack of boards 5 wide and 10 high with the nails bent so the boards will be flat and the bundle is then baled by the swamper. The baled bundle is then transported to inventory.
The only prior art known by me prior to this disclosure directed to the art of board roads is:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,335,556 C. N. Wilson PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,652,753 E. E. Smith PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,382,789 E. S. Guignon Jr. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,912,909 A. P. Hart PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,420 M. L. Davis et al. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,831,589 G. W. Way PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,056 F. G. Woodside et al. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,966 H. A. Willett PA1 German Pat. No. 1,067,996 1959. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,635,659 T. F. Gerdine PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,464 L. J. Linzmeier.
The mechanical apparatus for taking up nailed boards are my two prior patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,525,503 and 3,651,554.
Clam shell grabs which can be opened and closed hydraulically as well as rotated horizontally at least 90.degree. about their suspension axis are:
Wood receiving and stacking frames are exemplified in: